It creates jobs and tax revenue for government which support the social programs and capital infrastructure projects we rely on. Oil sands facts, statistics and indicators are subject to change as new information becomes available. Unless otherwise stated, sources are from the Government of Alberta. Where applicable, external sources have been noted and linked.
Alberta's oil sands has the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world, after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Crude bitumen production mined and in situ totaled about 2. Alberta's upstream energy sector includes oil sands, conventional oil and gas, and mining and quarrying. Capital investment in this sector:.
For the eighth fiscal year in a row, bitumen royalty made the largest contribution to provincial resource royalty revenue. Bitumen royalties were higher than budgeted due to higher-than-expected crude oil prices. The process of extracting oil from the sand is expensive. It takes two tons of sand to produce one barrel of crude oil. Great Canadian Oil Sands opened the first large-scale mine in , but growth was slow until because the global cost of a barrel of oil was too low to make oil sands profitable.
The images above show slow growth between and , followed by a decade of more rapid development. The first mine from , now part of the Millennium Mine is visible near the Athabasca River in the image. The only new development visible between and is the Mildred Lake Mine west of the river , which began production in , and was expanded in After , the price of oil began to climb, and investment in oil sands became profitable.
The Mildred Lake Mine also shows evidence of growth. It is a trend that is likely to continue since permits have been approved to expand mines in this region. The large images include a view of additional mines developing to the north. Oil sand mining has a large impact on the environment. Forests must be cleared for both open-pit and in situ mining. Pit mines can grow to more than 80 meters depth, as massive trucks remove up to , tons of sand every day. As of September , roughly square kilometers square miles of land had been disturbed for oil sand mining.
Companies are required to restore the land after they have finished mining. In this series of images, the large tailings pond from the mine was gradually drained and filled in. The mining companies pledged to plant grasses on the site. Satellite imagery shows greening after Tailings ponds contain a number of toxins that can leak into the groundwater or the Athabasca River.
The overall volume of tailings has kept growing for more than 50 years. Some ponds are leaking into the Athabasca River, says Paul Belanger, a former oil sands worker and current co-chair of Keepers of the Athabasca, an organization of indigenous peoples and environmentalists.
Air pollution, including acid rain , also plagues the remote region. One study found that acid rain would eventually damage an area almost the size of Germany. As a result of these issues, oil from the oil sands has a higher environmental cost than other sources, Belanger says. Not permanently, Abel argues: By law, he says, oil sands producers must reclaim the land when they are finished with their operations.
Only a small fraction of the mined land has been reclaimed so far, however. The oil sands industry has been very destructive to the environment and our communities in the region, says Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, executive director of Indigenous Climate Action , an indigenous-led organization. Karim Zariffa, the executive director of Oil Sands Community Alliance , an industry group, says the industry has tried to work closely with local and indigenous people over decades to share information and provide funding.
The best they can hope for is to have some land set aside to buffer the impacts and get some compensation. For one thing, Deranger points out, the cleanup of mines and tailings ponds will eventually require enormous investment. One government estimate put the bill as high as U. For another, many indigenous communities in the region are deeply impoverished. So in spite of the history of mistrust, some First Nations communities have become partners in oil sands projects, in return for jobs, grocery stores, housing, and public facilities.
When a community wanted to build off-grid solar for electricity, Deranger says, no one else stepped up to help except the industry. The same was true for a health center. Surrounded by oil sands mines, it has recently sued the Alberta government to stop a project that would consume some of its last traditional hunting lands.
Rather than advocating for the closure of existing oil sands projects, Indigenous Climate Action opposes any expansion of the industry and is working to help communities make a transition away from oil and toward renewable energy projects, particularly those that are indigenous owned and operated.
As a result, they are strongly opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline, since it could help increase the size of oil sands operations and contribute more to climate change. Even worse, in their view, is the fact that the Trudeau government spent billions to buy the pipeline—money they would have liked to see improve the poor housing, water infrastructure, and energy deficits within indigenous communities.
If built, the pipeline could dramatically increase the number of large oil tankers using coastal waters. That could endanger the local orca population and risk oil spills. This map of Alberta shows where active oil sands deposits are located. It also shows what portion is close enough to the surface to be mined. Within the square kilometres of boreal forest, about 90 square kilometres contain active oil sands deposits. Of that, only 5 per cent of the deposits are close enough to the surface to be mined.
Visit our Oil Sands Requirements page for a full list of our oil sands development regulations and requirements. We conduct regular inspections and audits to make sure that companies are following our requirements.
Oil sands mines and operations are complex and often require several areas of expertise to properly assess them. For example, a single mine inspection can take up to one week to complete; our professional engineers and environmental scientists often inspect these mines as a team.
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